Five people including a teenage girl were injured after a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

Five people including a teenage girl were injured after a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

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Five people including a teenage girl were injured after a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

A Santa Ana Police officer interviews James Guilliams, who lives in the back of the house and tried to wake up his roommates as the house caught fire in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

Paramedics standby to transport patients after five people including a teenage girl were injured after a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

Neighbors watch after five people were injured when a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

An Orange County Fire Authority Arson Investigator writes a report after five people were injured when a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

James Guilliams recounts his story of trying to save his roommates after five people were injured when a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

Firefighting equipment lays on the street after five people were injured when a fire broke out in a home in the 4800 block of Morningside Avenue around 11:45 p.m. in Santa Ana on Saturday, March 11, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Warn, Contributing Photographer)

SANTA ANA – Five people were injured, including a woman in her 30s with life-threatening injuries, in a house fire that killed three dogs and four cats Saturday night.

The fire was reported about 11:45 p.m. at a single-story home in the 4800 block of Morningside Ave. On their way to the home, firefighters learned people were trapped inside.

Firefighters found two people outside the burning home and went inside with a hose to dampen the flames in their path, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Hurdle.

“They found three unconscious victims and brought them out,” Hurdle said.

The fire was out at 12:23 a.m. with the help of about 55 firefighters, Hurdle said.

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Paramedics took a woman in critical condition and a woman, man and teenager to local hospitals. A fifth person declined to be taken to the hospital.

Investigators did not have an immediate cause for the fire or a damage estimate. Hurdle said it could take several days to determine the cause.

On Sunday, the neighborhood was quiet, and no one appeared to be present at the house that burned. Its front gate was padlocked. Yellow tape stretched the length of the home’s front fence.

Frank Banda, who lives across a brick wall from the house, said that he didn’t know how the fire started but that it lit up a pine tree in the back yard of the home. He said he watched as a firefighter cut into the roof with a chain saw. Banda said he was afraid that flames might jump the wall.

“The good thing is, there was no wind,” he said. “I had just taken the dog out, and when I went back in, my dog started going crazy. When we opened up the door, there were already flames on the tree. I ran outside. An Asian guy was running around knocking on people’s doors. That pine tree just went quick.”

Dulce Marin, who lives two doors away from the house, said she knew of two little dogs that lived at the home along with a big black dog, which she said survived. She said she was so shocked by the fire scene and people being pulled out that she couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

“It was just scary,” she said, recalling that four years ago a house three doors down from hers in the other direction had burned down. “This one was way closer to us,” she said.

Denisse Salazar covered the cities of Placentia and Yorba Linda for the Orange County Register. Over the years, she also covered crime, courts, human trafficking and breaking news, such as team coverage of Orange County’s worst mass killing, which won first place in online breaking news from the California Newspaper Publishers Association (2011). Salazar has won awards from the Orange County Press Club. She graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism and a minor in Spanish. She earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from USC.